The Television Pilot

When you write for television, it's best to know your markets. For television transcripts, ( educational purposes only) please refer to http://www.aintitcool.com/ and check out the links to movie and television scripts.

Another good source is Max Wylie's, "Writing for Television." This book written in 1970 is out of print but it has scripts from the Television classics, " Get Smart, Gomer Pyle and the Twilight Zone"

When we left off last month, I explained we would cover the television pilot. Unlike most of commercial and cable television the pilot has its own special place. A ticket to heaven is what a pilot can be. Many writers including yourself would kill to write for a series like "Cheers, "Fraiser" or "Friends." Such a series can establish European vacation time and money to write a novel. So after our slight commercial break, let us now return to our task of writing the pilot. We left off on transitions and exposition.

Like the short story your transition moment must be short but have words that clearly spell out what the character is doing. This often requires extensive practice. In the " Miami Vice" pilot within the first two minutes their is no dialog. You as the writer must spell out to the reader/buyer what is happening. They must picture what the character is doing.

Below for educational purposes is a short excerpt from an "X- Files" script. (A woman runs through the forest, grunting as she trips and stumbles over logs and rocks. She is wearing a nightgown and runs through the foliage. She falls over a tree root and stumbles into a small clearing. A loud roaring starts and the wind grows stronger. She looks up to see a light growing, shining through the trees. A silhouette steps out of the light, walking towards her. The leaves around her begin swirling up in a circle, like they are in the center of a tornado. The figure stands over her as the light engulfs them both. Morning. The girl is face-down on the ground, dead. Officials walk around, murmuring to each other. The assistant coroners lean over the body as coroner John Truitt and Detective Miles walk over to the body.)

Those few words of transition open up the world of the "X-files" and continue the series past season one into television history. " Miami Vice" took a more subtle approach to transitions, at the three minute mark, the viewer believes that the unnamed protagonist ( Calderone) is a drug dealer. But we really don't know that. We don't even know that Tubbs is a cop. At the four minute mark, we still don't know who the protagonist is, but we have a few hints. The writer has subtlety, maintained Ricardo Tubbs visually in the scene but no one has said his name. Tubbs bribes the waiter with a hundred-dollar bill, we see that waiter spill Monet Champagne upon Calderone. Anger appears on his face, upset words are unheard but exchanged, the music picks up the pace. We question ourselves, is this upset man the protagonist?

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